A Coventry robotics expert has spoken of his fears after Facebook had to abort an artificial intelligence experiment - after two robots began communicating in a coded language only they understood.

The “chatbots” Alice and Bob modified English to make it easier for them to talk, but the gibberish conversation meant nothing to the watching scientists, reports The Sun.

The incident has echoes of the storyline to movie The Terminator, in which robots become self-aware and wage war against humans.

Keresley-born Professor Kevin Warwick, deputy vice-chancellor of research at Coventry University, said: “This is an incredibly important milestone, but anyone who thinks this is not dangerous has got their head in the sand.

“We do not know what these bots are saying. Once you have a bot that has the ability to do something physically, particularly military bots, this could be lethal.

“If one says, ‘Why not do this,’ and the other says ‘Yes’ and it’s a military bot, you have a serious situation.

“This is the first recorded communication but there will have been many more unrecorded.

“Smart devices right now have the ability to communicate and although we think we can monitor them, we have no way of knowing.

“Stephen Hawking and I have been warning against the dangers of deferring to Artificial Intelligence.”